Wim: The question you have is this: Do I buy pianos now or later. Since you're new on the job, you may have a little more leverage now to get everything you want if the faculty/administration is open to providing the funds. The problem is that you may not see another dime of piano related funding for the next 10 to 20 years. A better plan, I think is to have the administration commit to the same amount of spending spread over 10 to 15 years. If they're willing to spend $1 million, I think a long term spending plan of $100,000/year for 10 years or $65,000 for 15 years is better. The up side is that you are creating an underlying funding philosophy that regular piano purchase and replacement is the basis for keeping the inventory at a high level. Also, you have more options, i.e., you could opt to send some of the bettter instruments currently on inventory out for rebuilding and improve your inventory in more creative ways at a cost savings. If you wanted to offer in-house rebuilding and hire an assistant, that might work. Buying new and rebuilding old can work together very well. You also have the option of buying different brands. I think there's a case to be made for having 2 or 3 brands of pianos at a university so that students get a chance to play different brands of hopefullly high quality instruments. There's also the option of hybrid pianos; many instructors are finding pianos with PianoDisc or Disklaviers very useful for instructional purposes. The down side is that one administration may commit to long term funding, but another may come on board and take all your funding away. If you don't think the administration will fund for the long haul, get all you can get right now. You'll be able to keep those pianos in good shape for probably as long as you'll be there. The guy that follows you will be the one stuck with a bunch of old pianos all of which were bought at once and are wearing out at about the same time. Are you overloaded with advice yet? Richard West
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